Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Lots of news for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Cyber Monday!

Episode Date: November 29, 2021

The Pittsburgh Penguins were in all the headlines on Monday! Hunter first touches on a couple of takeaways from Saturday's loss against the Montreal Canadiens. Is there any reason to be concerned moving forward? Was that just another case of getting goalie'd? He also goes into Evan Rodrigues and dives into some numbers from him this season. How has he been able to be one of the best players in hockey? Should he be on the top line even when Rust comes back? After that, Hunter goes into some injury updates as Geno looks to be getting closer. What is the updated timetable? He also does a short Flames preview before touching on the Penguins announcing the sale with Fenway Sports Group. Is Ron Burkle still going to remain with the team? What changes will take place, if any? All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.StatHeroStatHero is the first of its kind Daily Fantasy Sports platform where it’s YOU vs. the HOUSE in head to head fantasy matchups - winner take all. Sign up for FREE - RIGHT NOW - at StatHero.com/HOCKEY and use promo code HOCKEY for a One Hundred Percent Deposit Match.Omaha SteaksThe holidays are around the corner and finding the perfect gift is tricky. Omaha Steaks makes it easy to send friends and family an unforgettable gift guaranteed to be loved. Go to Omaha Steaks dot com and enter “NHL” into the search bar to order The Perfect Gift Package. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome to this Monday afternoon-slash-early evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes and follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this year.

first listen of the day. A lot to get into for today's episode. The sale was finally announced. The team does play tonight. We're going to go over a little bit of a couple of my takeaways from the loss against Montreal on Saturday. And yes, a player is getting very close to returning into the lineup. It is not Brian Russ.

I'll also have an update on that. I still do not know what's going on with the third jerseys. I have definitely been bamboozled with that. I will say that. So I apologize on that. So, let's get into it. First off, so the Penguins 5-game winning streak was ended by the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night at 63 loss.

I think Montreal had three empty netters. And that was the first time the Penguins have allowed three empty netters in the same game in franchise history. They have never done that before. So this franchise really does do some wild stuff basically every year. But I think the story from that game, it was Jake Allen. I mean, he was sensational from Montreal. The Penguins fired almost 50.

shots on net and he made some dazzling saves. I mean, there was one on Evan Rodriguez, I believe in the third period, just comes in, gets a beautiful pass, shoots it, looks like it's going to go top cheese, Alan gets his glove up, and just makes a remarkable glove save. Sid was also robbed a couple times, Gensel was robbed. Basically, every player on the team was robbed at least once by Jake Allen.

The money puck deserved to win meter, which has been very prevalent on Penguin's Twitter, few weeks, Penguins had about an 81, 82% chance to win that game out of a thousand simulations. And that's been a theme for a lot of these games. I understand a lot of people are going to be upset, you know, they're not finishing their chances, all this stuff. But this team was just on a 5-game winning streak, and they were finishing their chances at a pretty high clip.

They were exceeding their expected goals for per amount on an every night basis. So again, I understand that people are going to point to this team not finishing their chances, but sometimes you really do have to pat the other goalie on the back and say, hey, man, Gigi's. I mean, that's just, Jake Allen was that good. He was the only reason Montreal won that game. The Penguins were skating circles around them the entire time. They led in shot attempts for Corsi.

They led in scoring chances for. They led in high danger. Casey DeSmith, I thought was mainly fine. He was probably good enough to win the game. But when the team is not finishing on their chances, it's hard. to have a backup goaltender who has not been good at all this season and going back to last year, it's hard to have him stand on his head. And I just knew, you know, right when it was still scoreless in the second period, I'm like, this is just screaming for the haves to score first. And sure

enough, they did. I know Pittsburgh was able to tie it back up in the third period, thanks to Evan Rodriguez, he continues to be ridiculous this year. More on him in Justice Decc. I have some stats to throw out, I don't you all that are probably going to blow you away. But outside of that, you know, Allen was just sensational. And he is the reason why Pittsburgh lost. There's really nothing deeper to go into than that. Sure, it's annoying to lose to a bottom feeder. I understand the HAB just made a lot of changes on Sunday with Scott Melendby out.

Mark Bersion is out. Jeff Gordon is in. They're looking for their next general manager. But overall, this team is still won five under the last six games. They have a big road trip coming up. Let's see where that brings us, especially for tonight's game against the Calgary Flames. I really don't think it's the end of the world. I thought the Penguins played really hard in this game.

It was nice to see Sidney Crosby get a goal. I think he's starting to turn it up ever so slowly. His timing is still not all the way back just yet, but I liked the goal that he scored in the game on Saturday. Jeff Carter, he was able to score as well. I saw a couple takes on some message boards and, you know, Twitter, a couple other places are saying Carter was having a bad game or that he's been bad this year.

I don't really know where that take is coming from. He's been on the ice for nearly 50% of the shot attempts, 50% of the scoring chances, a tad over 50% of the high-danger scoring chances for. Overall, his production is at five goals and 11 points through 18 games. He was never going to have the production that you saw last season, and that was just not going to carry over. There was going to be some form of regression one way or the other. And the production that I just outlined for you all,

that's perfectly fine in a third-line center role. The penguins were searching just so, hard for that Nick Benino replacement. They finally have it. And now people are just kind of dumping on Carter for not doing what he did last year this year. I mean, I just don't really understand that. He's been fine to me and I think he's going to get even better once Afghani Malkin does come back more on him later on in the show. But again, as for Evan Rodriguez, I mean, this is just ridiculous what we have seen from him so far. If you go to Micah Blake McCurdy's stuff on HockeyViz.com, please subscribe to it if you have not, if you love analytics and all that.

The Penguins 5E5 offense with Evan Rodriguez on the ice. There have been 267 minutes when Erod has been on the ice. The Penguins expected goals for per 60, 3.93 plus 55%. There is a sea of red virtually everywhere in the offensive zone except towards basically right along the boards. Everywhere else, The slot, the center point, the circles right in front of the net, almost behind the net to the side of the net, is just a sea of red. And it goes to show how freaking good Rodriguez has been this year. When he is on the ice, the penguins are driving play every single shift. And oh, believe me, there is more. So this comes courtesy now of J. Fresh hockey.

He also does amazing work as well. the expected goals 4 percentage leaders at 5E5 this season Evan Rodriguez number one at 65% Austin Matthews, a tick below him, Matthew Kachuk, behind him, Elias Linholm, Johnny Goodrow, Michael Bunting, and Jason Zucker right around 60%. So the Penguins have two players in the top 10 on Jay Fresh's expected goals 4 percentage per 60 at 5E5

with Rodriguez leading the way at 65% this season. Now, again, there's also more stuff. This was tweeted out a couple of weeks ago. This comes courtesy of Andy and Rono Hockey Stats, CZ, on Twitter. Rodriguez was in the 95th percentile for defense, 82nd percentile for offense, 100th percentile for shot contribution, 89th percentile for shooting, 99th percentile for passing. Basically, he is just a man on a mission this year. He has not been one of the best players on the team.

He's been one of the best players in all of hockey this season. and it's been comparable to Connor Fricking McDavid in multiple freaking models. I mean, this is probably the greatest Mark Donk that we've ever seen with the Penguins, but this isn't just a flash in the pan that's going to, you know, gone on for three or four games. No, this has gone on for 20 freaking game season. The fact that he is on such a steal-of-a-contract at not even a million per, I mean, that's just ridiculous. So he continues to kill it.

I am so happy that he is playing on Cindy Crosby's line with Jake Gensel. Here's one more stat for you all before we get to commercial break. During that game against Montreal, he was, Ever Rodriguez was on the ice for one goal, 14 shot attempts for, eight scoring chances for, and had an 87.6% on ice, expected goal share, tops on the team, and easily, again, his best game of his career. Just a flat-out, amazing performance from Rodriguez

and continues to be one of the best players in the league this season. I would hope that they can bring him back after this year, but with how this is going, He might price himself out of Fitzworth and get a pretty nice substantial payday from a team that is in need of some more scoring. But that wraps up this first segment of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Again, no one really needs to get mad or anything. The Penguins are still in the playoffs, but as of right now, let's see what this road trip brings. We're going to do a small preview later on in the show for the Calgary Flames matchup on Monday night.

Remember, it's a 9 p.m. puck drop. And then they'll also go to Edmonton on Wednesday to take on Connor McDavid and the Oilers. And remember, we still have a lot more injury updates to get to, including Brian Russ and at getting Malkin. We still have the official sale to get to with statements for Mario Lemieux, and a whole lot more. But first, does this sound familiar? You've got one device that lets you catch the game live, another that lets you stream your favorite shows, you're watching sports highlights on your phone, and you've got your neighbor's best friends logging for the good stuff. Well, I want to tell you about a simple way to get all the entertainment you love without the hassle,

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Compatible device required, content varies by package. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. We're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. shows Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Pittsburgh did have a morning skate this morning for the game against the flames, and Fagney Malkin made his return to the team for the first time since he played game six of the Stanley-Dill playoffs against New York Islanders. This is a very big step for Gino in his recovery process. Mike Sullivan even said so to the media today, saying, you know,

the next and basically final step after this is getting him in a full contact practice where He's basically able to be in like a simulation of what an actual game would look like. I'm not sure when that final step is going to come. But with now December being just a couple days away, remember, this was the time frame that Ron Hextall gave a drain training camp. He said sometime in December, we're basically right there. So I don't know if that's going to be Christmas time. Mid-December, a week from now, I'm not sure. But the fact that he is back skating with the team signals to me that it's probably,

a couple of weeks away at the very most, maybe a bit sooner. He wasn't participating in line rushes or anything today, but he was still, looks like he was skidding with authority, firing a lot of pucks on. It's just good for him to be back with his teammates just because he's missed so much time this year already. But just huge news that's going to make the team so much better. I will never listen to people who think the team needs to trade Afghani Malkin

or the team is just better off without him. Those people are just a bunch of naysayers, and I think a bunch of fair weather bandwagon fans, to be honest with you. He makes the team better, point blank. I am so excited to see him back in the lineup here, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. Now with the bad injury news, Brian Russ, he will be out again tonight and for the foreseeable future. He is week to week with a lower body injury per Mike Sullivan. So he is back in Pittsburgh. He did not even go on the trip, actually.

So that is definitely not the great. greatest news, especially since he just came back from a lower body injury. Josh Yoey was speculating on this in his article in The Athletic a couple days ago. And I was saying before he wrote that as well, that it definitely seems like it might be related to that previous injury. Maybe he re-aggraated it. I'm not really sure. But it seems like he just fell down in warm-ups and then all of a sudden he's out of that game and now he's week to week. It definitely seems like something is up with that previous injury that.

He just must have bothered, and now he's week to week with that same injury. I wish him the best in his recovery. He was starting, I think, to really turn a corner this season, especially with that goal against the Vancouver Canucks, where he basically looked to the heavens and was like, okay, I finally scored. I got that monkey off my back. And then it looks like he's going to play against the Islanders late last week,

healthy scratched right away. So the injury bug has come back a little bit for the Penguins, but right now this is still relatively a healthy team minus him, and Gino, and I think at this point Gino might be back before Russ, which is crazy to think about considering Gino has been out for the first few months of the season. Now, in terms of lines for what you

will see, so Drew O'Connor was recalled from Wilkesbury. He does not look like he will play tonight, though. Jake Gensel, Cindy Crosby, having Rodriguez on the top line, Jason Zooker, Jeff Carter, Kasperi Kappen on the second line, Dominic Simone, Brian Boyle, Dayton Hinen, and then the regular checking line of Aston-Ree's Blueyre again, defensively.

No change there, Dumae, Latang, Pedersen, Reno, Mappison, Roo-Edle, and Tristan Jari will 100% be getting the start tonight. He was just named the second star of the week for his performances. Congratulations to him. He is having an amazing season thus far, and I hope it continues tonight against Calgary.

And again, that just brings up to the second and final matchup between these two teams. Remember, Calgary blanked Pittsburgh 4-0 on October 28th at PBG Paints Arena. That was basically known as the Jacob Markstrom game. I thought Pittsburgh played pretty okay in that game, but Markstrom was just ridiculous for the flames, and he has been insane for them all season. There was a bit of a drop-off for him last year where his 8 percentage was right around the 900 mark, but right now it is at basically 940 in terms of permoneypuck.com. He ranks, let's see here, he ranks sixth overall in goals saved above expecting 9.7.

Tristan Jari, 9.8. is top five in goal state above expected. Only Frederick Anderson, Igor Shisterk, and Jack Campbell, and Sergey Bavrovsky are above hand. So this matchup is shaping up to be quite their goaltenders duel tonight. Both goalways have a safe percentage on unblocked shots. 964, the expected save percentage on unblock shots. 9.53 for Jari, 9.52 for Markstrom. Jari's regular save percentage is 936 compared to Markstrom's 937.

The stats are basically identical at any single. you look at. So beating Markstrom will be priority number one for Pittsburgh tonight. But this Flames team is also ridiculously good analytically. They have 54% of the expected goals. That's one of the better marks in the league for actual goals per Moneypuck at 5E5. They have 65.6% of the actual goals. That is one of the best marks in the league. I am scrolling through MoneyPuck right now, and there is not a better team in terms of actual goals for than the Calgary Flames this season. So this is a very dangerous team on the offensive side. We all know what Matthew Cachuk can do.

Johnny Goodro is one of the more underrated players in the league. And here's one interesting stat for you. Andrew Mangapani, he has 15 goals in almost 20 games this year. The dude is writing a 30% shooting percentage. That is going to regress to the mean very aggressive. aggressively at some point, but he has been red-hot to start the year, no pun intended with the flames. Elias Lindholm, he's been ridiculously good this year. Mikhail Backlin, you always got to watch out for him.

Blake Coleman, of course, is there. Sean Monaghanan in the bottom six. Milan Luchich is on the fourth line. Tyler Pittlett, Dylan Duby. Noah Hanna, fan Rasmus Anderson, on the top pair. Chris Hanev, he's also had a pretty decent year after a rejuvenated season last year, Oliver Schillington, excuse me. the team still employs Eric Goodbranson.

It is crazy how good the flames are while icing Good Branson on an every night basis. It's actually crazy to me how that continues to happen. But this team is very high up in the league on almost every metric. Again, shot attempts for Corsi, 54.4% of those. They have a plus 21 goal differential. It is ridiculous how good the flames are this year.

It's definitely something I also did not see coming. I had this team kind of on the outside looking in. I will take the L on that. I'm eating all the crow right now. They're goals against per 60. 1.3-5. Their goals for per 60, 2.5.8. So they are not giving up a lot the other way,

and they're also scoring at a pretty decent clip this year. So this is going to be a very tough matchup for Pittsburgh to win. In terms of this Western Canada road trip, I would put this game over Edmonton in terms of how tough this one will be. I think they can definitely take down the Oilers. I don't think they're good defensively. Goaltending-wise, there are a lot of questions there. I know McDavid and Dry Saddle are ridiculous.

But outside of them, they have a lot of depth concerns. Vancouver has a lot of problems. Pittsburgh has just finished up beating them last week. Seattle has really struggled this year. Then they somehow, for some reason, they have a game against Washington to end the trip, which, again, I don't really understand that. But this is definitely, I think, going to be the toughest game of the road trip tonight for the Penguins. We'll see what happens with that.

at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. Hope you all have your coffee ready. It's going to be a good one. I love seeing these two teams go at it. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to have more details on the Penguins official sale. It has been announced by the Penguins organization. There were statements from a whole bunch of parties today, including Mario Lemieux. We're going to get into those coming up here in the next segment. Before I do that, though, a bet on line. It has you covered for all seasons sports-wise, and that means more prompts, odds and lines than ever before. Bet Online remains your number one spot for all the sports action this season. You can head to the new updated desktop or mobile website to sign up today and receive your 50% off welcome bonus on your first deposit. Just use our promo code locked on to receive that bonus from basketball, football, NHL, boxing UFC, right to your favorite Vegas casino games. Don't wait to take advantage on all the amazing offers available for the 2021 season. Better Online is the fastest and easiest way to bet on all of your favorite sports.

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All right, so welcome back to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Honor Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at HonorHodys. Follow this show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. The biggest news, I think, with the franchise today, the Penguins and the Fenway Sports Group have officially announced the purchase agreement

as the Fenway Sports Group will be taking over as the majority ownership group of this franchise. Mariel Mew put out a very beautiful statement, I thought, to all of the fans and just the people that follow the team. He says here, Ron Burko and I have reached agreement with the Fenway's Group to sell a controlling interest in the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team. We want everyone to know that we would only enter a partnership of this magnitude with leaders

who share our values. Over the years, we have been approached multiple times with various groups interested in purchasing our team, but we never found the right fit. In Fenway's Squartz Group, however, we men an experienced group of leaders with a passion to win championships and a vision that aligns with ours just as importantly they have at their core a stewardship philosophy rooted in local community impact investment it is a winning combination as this new chapter begins this is the big kicker i'm happy to tell you that ron and i will both remain part of the ownership group for the last 22 years we have shared a special bond that

allowed us to work so well together keeping the team in pittsburgh building new arena and bring home three stanley cups i will continue to be active and involved with the team long term help to oversee and guide the operation, just as I always have. In addition to continuing my role, there will be a continuity of leadership with the club's senior management under David Morehouse, Brian Burke, Ron Hextall, and Kevin Acklin. I have been fortunate to be part of the Penguins organization

for more than half my life, and I've had the unique privilege of your incredible fan support as a player and an owner. Together with our new partners, we work tirelessly to continue to make you proud and bring another Stanley Cup back to Pittsburgh. It's just a beautiful statement I thought there from Mario. Everyone knows how much he does mean to not just the organization, but the city as a whole.

And hopefully this puts to bed the weird, not they should, aren't even rumors. I think they're just crap posts of people saying that this ownership group is going to move the team. I mean, the lease with PPG Paints Arena is still 2040. Mario would not have just sold a controlling interest of his beloved franchise true group that would just move them to Hartford, or, excuse me, or Kansas City or something like that. I think if you're staying Kansas City or any one of those other sites, you're just being ignorant. at least in my opinion. And the final step will now be an NHL board of governors meeting.

I believe this weekend where they will finalize the sale. Dejong Kovachievich has officially reported. It will be a $900 million sale for this team. And again, as the Penguins, twerk count says, it's expected to close before the end of the year. It should be after this weekend. I saw a funny tweet here from Jesse Marshall. My favorite part of the reply is to the announcement

is a bunch of Liverpool supporters. fresh off a title courtesy of this ownership group coming in to warn the Penguins fans, all while exhibiting a complete misunderstanding of salary caps in the American sports structure. Yeah, I mean, the soccer with English primarily compared to the NHL in North America, it's two completely different leagues, one with a very different salary cap and a whole bunch of other jazz. So that's really going to be something that I don't think anyone should worry about. Chris LaTang spoke to the media about the deal. He said it's the business sign of the game.

When you hear that Mario and Ron will still be part of ownership, It is a relief. I grew a relationship with both of them. I'm pretty sure it's a good business move for them too. I'm happy for them. And that's a great statement, especially from a player that's not just a core player for this team, but someone that he's going to have contract negotiations really soon. If he's not in them already, what's this going to look like towards the end of the year

when he's negotiating potentially ending his career with the Penguins? So I thought that kind of statement was definitely really positive from Tanger. And as for the people that are a bit nervous that Latang is not going to come back to the team. If he's feeling pretty relieved, I think you all should as well. I'm sure Mario and Ron will go to bat for him once these negotiations come up with Fenway Sports Group. I'm sure everyone will have conversations. Ron Hextall will be involved in those. All that jazz.

And finally, Ron Hextall spoke to the meet. Not Ron Hexel, excuse me. Mike Sullivan spoke to the media today and said that Hextel and Burke addressed the players this morning. He also had a conversation with the owners at the top before he took the ice. for practice. These owners have a proven record. They are in it for the long haul, and it is a win-win for everyone involved, in my opinion. So everyone within the organization definitely seems to be really happy about this move with the Fenway Sports Group. Nothing much is really going to change. The team is still going to be the same. They're still probably going to spend the

salary cap almost every year that they want to contend. The ownership group at the top, they love using analytics, I believe, or at least that is what some Liverpool supporters and some Red Sox supporters, or some of my friends that support those two teams have told me. And as long as Mario was there and is going to be involved in the day-to-day operations with the team, again, I can't see too much changing. It's just for the business side of the franchise. And I'm excited for them to own the team for the foreseeable future. That will do it for this episode of the Lock Tom Penguins podcast.

I appreciate all of you listening to this one. We'll have another episode tomorrow as a game recap to the Flames one. I was originally going to think about doing something as a game recap, but then I realized that the game would probably end around 1130, and I'm like, I'm not to be able to crank out an episode that quick. So I'm just going to save that one for tomorrow. Hope you all have a great rest of your evening. Let's see what the Penguins can do tonight,

and we'll talk about that game for tomorrow's episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'll talk to you all then.